Dark Reverie
by LeShyWolf
Summary: Striking, icy sapphire eyes stare at me with malicious intent as her soft lips curl back into a vicious snarl. I grab Ib's hand and run for my life, hauling the little girl with me as my companions sprint by my side. To think, this morning the only problematic issues I had was burning my toast.


**Dark Reverie **

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**~Chapter 1~**

**Burnt Toast**

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**Hey guys! ^_^ yep, you guessed right-NEW STORY!**

**Finally got rid of the block that was stopping me try to stop me write an Ib story. This is my first Ib fic, so apologies if I get anything wrong, feel free to correct me and give constructive criticism. ****I don't own anything except Elisabeth. It's sad, I know :'(**

**Enjoy!**

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Dammit.

I chuck the black, crispy piece of bread towards the bin and it lands with a soft thud on top of the small empty box that used to hold apple juice cartons. I rake a hand through my hair with a sigh and go on my tip toes as I pull open the cupboard, eyes scanning the cereal boxes before I reach up and take the Rice Krispies and pour it into a green bowl. Swinging the fridge door to the left, I snatch the milk and tilt the bottle over the bowl after unscrewing the green cap. Then I put the milk away, picking up my bowl of cereal and sitting down in front of the sofa, legs crossed as I bring the spoon of my breakfast up to my mouth before swallowing.

Shifting to adjust my position on the sofa, I turn the channel over and chew as I watch an early re-run of Doctor Who while eating the cereal. I love Doctor Who like hell, don't get me wrong, but I still miss David Tennant a little. And lately, there's something missing in the show. I don't know what it is. There's just this... _thing_ that's bothering me. Maybe it's because Amy and Rory aren't in the show anymore and I'm still getting used to the new companion, Clara. Though I know I like her. She's unique, mysterious and her banter with the Doctor is amusing.

Finishing up my cereal, I stand up and put it in the sink before putting on my leather jacket and making my way towards the door, snatching up my keys and purse on the kitchen counter along the way. The door closes with a thud behind me and I get a cab to the museum where the Guertena exhibition is. Like everyone else attending and viewing his work, my curiosity got the better of me. If I like his paintings and sculptures, I'm doing my assignment on him for school.

Buying my ticket at the reception takes a while but I finally, eventually, manage to get into the actual exhibition. So far, I like his work as I slowly walk around, pamphlet in hand as my eyes scan the paintings. Most of the paintings are so life-like that it brings out a sense of eeriness that gives me a slight icy feeling of apprehension the more and more I stare at the image within the frames. It's... _freaky_. Just how real the people look. But yet, so beautifully done.

There's this one painting of a stunning woman in red. Her gorgeous chocolate eyes are almost a tint of red, the elegance she holds just by the position she's sitting in. Head up, prideful, sophisticated. Her eyes are beautiful and yet look cold and almost... malicious. He obviously brings life to the paintings. Makes you feel like they _are_ real and makes you _feel_ for them. A picture is worth a thousand words and a story is told within the image- and might I say how aesthetically pleasing the images are.

My converse boot clad feet squeak slightly against the hard, smooth and shiny floor as I move away from the painting. I snap out of my little artistic rant inside of my mind as I walk over towards the cafe, purchasing a bottle of water and a sandwich to settle the hunger in my stomach. The water is cool when I drink it, fresh from the fridge. The newly made sandwich is nice, so I give the waitress a tip before leaving.

Gasping in surprise when I turn around the corner, I narrowly dodge the small person about to smash into me and hold out my hand, steadying them. When I step away, taking my hand off their shoulder, I notice that it's a little girl with big, innocent brown eyes that look slightly crimson and unique. She blinks up at me, startled by a stranger crashing into her. She has long, straight and dark hair and wears a white long-sleeved shirt adorned with a red bow, matching her skirt. She's also wearing black knee-high socks and cute little red shoes. Her attire is very similar to a school uniform.

"Sorry," I apologize to the girl, a small friendly smile on my lips to show her I mean no harm.

"It's okay." She says shyly in return, voice kind of quiet. She puts her hands behind her back, looking up at me through her eye lashes in the most adorable way possible.

I glance around behind her, thinking maybe her parents are straying after her. But I see no one, so I look back down at the girl, kneeling down a little bit so I'm level with her. I normally don't talk to strangers, but my morality is conflicting with me. "Are you lost?" She shakes her head and I nod. "Okay then,"

With that, she shuffles along, her dark eyes look up at the paintings with wonder and curiosity. A soft smile spreads on my lips before I walk away and continue down the corridor. My features twist into one of confusion and discomfort suddenly as a wave of dizziness slams into me, I reach up a hand to my temple as I release a small, quiet groan. Quickly, I move over towards the woman's toilet's that I spot over towards the right next to a painting of a lady in blue. My hands shove the door and I rush through, leaning over the sink as my pale and slender hands grip it. Inhaling and exhaling, I run the tap and splash a bit of cold water on my face. I have literally no idea where that came from. It was completely random and out of the blue.

Shaking my head with my eyes closed I sigh as I look up in the mirror, only to let out a startled and frightened stream of curse words while I quickly recoil backwards, eyes widening in horror. A face is there, it belongs to a woman with a ghastly appearance. Her pale, bony finger lifts up slowly and presses to her lips. Her dark eyes are ominous, almost completely black. It sends a shiver of dread through me as terror and adrenaline rushes through my veins. The lights flicker suddenly and turn off, a chill brushes over my arms, causing goose bumps to rise.

I freeze, paralyzed.

The lights flicker again, coming back on. I stare at the mirror, feeling myself blanch at the red, sloppy writing on the shattered glass. It looks like blood, but I hope to god it's not. Apprehension raises the hair on the back of my neck, an uneasy churn coiling in the pit of my stomach. The atmosphere is eerie, the only coherent sound is my shaky, fast breaths rushing in and out of my mouth. My chest lifts and lowers quickly the more my laboring breath increases.

**_Come and play..._**

I stay there for a moment, completely still as I process what just happened. Then I slowly reach out and hesitate as I touch the red liquid on the mirror. I bring my hand to my face, eyes searching the mysterious substance. It's not dark enough to be blood, it looks more like paint. Swallowing, I walk into the stall, rip some tissue from the roll on the wall before I wipe the small red smudge off my fingers. Then I walk out of the toilets.

Only to, once again, freeze.

This isn't the museum.

The place that surrounds me is a dark blue corridor. I spin around and look around frantically as I let out shuddering breaths, my pale hands tremble as I reach for the door knob of the woman's toilets. But my fingers meet a hard wall. My wide eyes look the door up and down as I take a step back and examine what the heck this sorcery was. The door _is _there, but it's _painted _on the wall. It's not real. It's just a painting! My hands touch the wall, sliding across it while trying to find something. I don't know what, maybe it's a trick.

After five minutes of attempting to find the place I just came from, to no avail, I eventually turn away and start walking down the azure hallway while glancing around carefully. My footsteps cautious and echoing through the area. I swallow the lump in my throat as I continue, keeping myself as calm as possible- which is difficult. My expression turns into disbelief, denial washing over me as I keep walking and walking.

Where the hell am I?

"Hello?" I call out, feeling like I'm in a horror movie as my voice echos and bounces on the walls. It's like a ghost town. Am I dreaming? When I was dizzy, did I not make it to the woman's toilets? Did I faint?

I noticed another door ahead of me on the left, it's red. I head towards it and reluctantly open it, stepping through. A big room greets me, my feet stepping on the fancy red carpet that covers the floor as I go through the door frame when I hear an unexpected loud _thud_ behind me. Whirling around, I put my hands on the wall when I see it no longer there. The only thing there is dark crimson wallpaper. Huffing in annoyance as well as feeling confused, I turn around and look around.

There's a very tall blue statue on the left of the room, guarded by a thin rope around it to keep people away from it. On the right hand ride of the room was the same statue but just a different colour. Red to be specific. I scratch my cheek and my eyes rake over the small wall between the two stone statues, seeing a painting on it. No one is around, it's just me standing in the middle of it all. Alone.

Behind the wall was another red door and on either side of it are paintings. I go on the right, reading one labeled "Heart Wounds" and looking at the image of the heart, that actually has an arrow piercing the side of it, but it was a real arrow, poking out of the painting. I feel tempted to rip it out, to see if any security guards come and try to kick me out. It'll teach them for trying to pull off a prank like this- if it is one, that is.

I hope it is.

I freeze when I hear a squeaky creak emit from behind me, a door opening. Slowly, I turn around but then my eyes widen when I see the little girl from before walking through the frame. Her eyes widen at the sight of me and we stare at each other for a moment, unsure how to react.

Clearing my throat, I kneel to the ground to become less intimidating, not that I am anyway. "Hey, it's you... we bumped into each other before." I say, she stares at me, an uncertain look in her eyes. I give her a hopeful one in return, "do you know where we are?" I doubt she knows, but I give it a shot.

She shakes her head silently before continuing to stare at me, I note that she moved back the slightest, the hesitance clear on her face. I back away a step, trying to win her trust and show her I'm not a crazy stranger. I smile at her, making sure it's warm and friendly. "I'm not going to hurt you, you don't need to worry." She gives me a long, vacant stare. "My name is Elisabeth, what's yours?"

"Ib." She informs me quietly in a mumble after a moment of reluctance, twiddling her thumbs, seeming a little nervous.

"It's nice to meet you Ib." I tell her, then glance around before looking back at her. I'm not all that good with children, but my morality is urging me to take her with me. I can't leave a child on her own in a place like this. But I can't assume things. Maybe she's with someone. "Are your parents with you?"

She shakes her head.

"Are you on your own?" She nods. I frown before taking a deep breath, holding out my hand slowly, so I don't frighten her. "Would you like to come with me? So we can find your parents?"

She seems a little hesitant still, but walks towards me slowly. I can see the slight fear lingering in her eyes at trusting a complete stranger. But as her small hand grasps mine, I give it a light, comforting squeeze and stand up straight, eyes scanning the door on the other side of the room.

"Alright, we should-"

A crashing noise of breaking glass sounds in the air and my eyes snap towards the direction it came from, only to gasp as my eyes rest on the familiar woman of the lady in red. The _painting_ is crawling towards us, her bright _crimson_ sinister eyes burn into my light blue as she emits an animalistic snarl, her hands claw the ground with shocking speed as she heads our way. Terrified. I quickly grab Ib's hand tighter and pull her with me towards the red door. I curse when it doesn't open. _Locked_.

Ib suddenly sprints off and I'm about to call after her when the lady in red sneers and comes towards me. As I literally run around the room, I notice Ib opening the door with a red key in the corner of my eye and pant as I sprint towards her, the lady in red close on my tail. I leap through the door as Ib slams it shut behind me, gasping for air as I sit on the ground. I need to work out more.

I give Ib a grateful grin, my voice breathless. "Heh, thanks."

She sends me a shy smile as her cheeks redden. "You're welcome."

"Try not to run off when something like that happens again though," I order. "You scared me for a moment."

"Okay, I'm sorry." She responds, using those cutesy puppy eyes against me.

"It's okay. Come on." I say with a sigh, standing up and brushing my jeans down. "I don't want another confrontation with... whatever _that _was."

"It was a painting." Ib says, I know she doesn't mean to be sarcastic or patronizing. It's just an innocent statement. So I shrug it off and look around. There's book shelves, left and right. Two rows. With space and a pathway from the door we came from and the door ahead of us. I try to open the door, but it's locked.

"_F-_" I quickly remember about the nine year old standing behind me and change my words of frustration, dragging them out. "-_fudge cake_."

"Where?" she asks, curious eyes wondering the room. I chuckle.

"Don't worry about it."

"You're weird." She giggles, I grin at her adorableness before huffing and looking at the books. She catches the look of aggravation I give the locked door. "Maybe the key is hidden somewhere in the books?"

"You're a smart kid." I ruffle her hair before examining every crook and cranny of the bookshelves. It seems far fetched to me, but it's the only thing we have right now. There's no way I'm going back out there with that... _monster_. The complete opposite of what I thought of the painting earlier. But now that it's showing it's true colours- well, I don't want to be _anywhere_ near it.

At the knocks that are slammed on the door, I freeze up, eyes wide as I look at the door. Speak of the devil.

"Hurry." I instruct Ib. She has no objections.

As I search through the books, I eventually hear a soft _click_ come from the door. I stand up and then look at it in confusion when nothing comes through but waste no time questioning how it opened by itself as I grasp the little girl's hand and storming through in order to get to safety. I breathe a sigh of relief before I spot something on the ground.

A purple rose.

Confused, I approach it, leaning over as I pick it up, tilting my head to the side as I observe it.

"I have a red one." Ib declares to me with a smile as she takes out a crimson rose from her small shoulder bag and shows me hers. I blink curiously and smile down at her. "You can put yours in my bag if you want."

I'm about to politely decline, but something is urging me to keep this rose. Something tells me it's important. As stupid and silly as that concept is, I agree with Ib and gently pass it to her, she handles it with care, placing it inside of the small shoulder bag and smiling brightly up at me. She seems to have warmed up to me rather quickly. I guess I'm not so bad with kids after all. I do have a little brother and sister, they seem to behave a little like Ib so I suppose unconsciously I'm treating her like a little sister and she's come to like me in the short time we've been together.

Well, she is a child.

Children trust anyone because they're naive.

"Let's go." I tell her, and we're off.

We pass by a painting of a big light blue bottle called "_Eternal Blessing_" with a replica of the object next to it. Not wanting to mess with it, I pull Ib along next to me but then stop when we walk through the door, spotting blue petals on the ground leading towards somewhere.

Okay, normally one would easily spot the trap here.

But I'm _me_.

And the damn curiosity got the better of me.

Not wanting to leave Ib on her own, I take her with me as we follow the trail of blue petals, but I'm cautious and careful, not wanting to put the girl in danger. Then I notice a sign on the wall, but no painting above it. Frowning, I approach it and lean forward, reading it before apprehension crawls on the back of my neck at the words.

_Lady in Blue_.

But where is she?

"Cra-" again, I remember I'm not alone. The innocent nine year old standing behind me. I drag out the 'a' as I change the word, which makes me sound like a loony for the amount of time I drag out the letter. "-ackers."

"You're really weird." Ib declares bluntly as she stares at me with an expression of confusion. I chuckle at the cute look of disbelief, throwing her an amused grin. I suppose she's bluntly honest with the people she warms up to, no longer shy around me.

"What?" I hold up my hands in mock surrender. "I'm a little hungry."

"I have a candy bar in my bag if you want it." She offers me, I smile and politely decline.

"Come on, we should find another way. Obviously there's nothing here for us." Ib nods and skips after me, walking by my side as we walk through a hallway and into another roo-

I halt in my steps, Ib crashes into my back and I steady her, eyes staying on the figure that's lying down on the ground face first ahead of us. Ib eyes the person cautiously and I purse my lips, putting a hand on her shoulder as I speak quietly, "stay there, Ib."

Slowly, I approach the unconscious person on the floor and kneel beside them. From what I can tell, it's a man. Strangely enough. He has light purple hair with darker streaks on top and he's wearing a long, tattered dark blue coat over. I frown and reach out my hand towards his wrist, feeling for a pulse. From the faint and slow thumping in his veins, he's still alive. When something glinting in the light catches my eye, I look at his hand, seeing that he's carrying a key. Holding so tight, as if his life depends on it.

A deep, hoarse painful groan rumbles in his throat and I gently place my hand on his shoulders in concern, "Are you okay?" He gives a harsh, pained cough and my hands immediately withdraw from him while I eye him with a strong uncertainty, unsure of what to do.

"It... hurts..." he sounds like he's in agony, his voice very quiet and barely audible with how hoarse it is.

"Alright. I'll go get help." I promise, then turn around. "Ib-"

She's not there.

"Ib?" I call out in alarm when I don't see her. "Ib?!"

Where is she?

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**Uh-oh. WHERE IS IB?!**

**See you guys next chapter! =']**

**Don't forget to review ;)**

**~E**


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